


Fishing for News

by china_shop



Category: White Collar
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fic, Gen, Not Quite Gen, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-18
Updated: 2013-03-18
Packaged: 2017-12-05 17:08:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/725749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/china_shop/pseuds/china_shop
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>No one is keeping June in the loop, so she has to find out for herself what's going on.</p><p>AU (diverges from canon just before the end of 3.16).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fishing for News

**Author's Note:**

  * For [neu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/neu/gifts).



> For neu's prompt, "I don't like the look of it." (Hughes)
> 
> Many thanks to mergatrude for beta.

June was not by nature a patient person, and she had no compunction about getting her hands dirty. Many times Byron tried to make her twiddle her thumbs on the sidelines while a job went down, but only rarely did he succeed. In the years since his passing, her life was less eventful, especially as their children were woefully well-behaved, but recently Neal and his associates had alleviated the boredom. 

Now, though, Neal was in DC at the mercy of Agent Kramer. Mozzie had followed him to lend amoral support, as he put it, and the agents June knew best were unavailable for comment. 

These were difficult times, and keeping June in the loop was no one's top priority. She could understand that, but she couldn't bear it. After a week of taut, unpleasant silence, she took matters into her own hands, talked her way past the FBI's front desk and visited the eerily quiet office of the White Collar division in Manhattan.

Many of the desks were empty. Agent Jones was seated at his computer, typing while talking on the phone, and there were half a dozen agents clustered behind him, each clutching a file folder and awaiting his attention. They looked barely old enough to have finished college, and June didn't recognize any of them. 

She turned to see if there were an alternative source of information and came face to face with Agent Hughes, harried and gruff, stuffing his cellphone into the inside pocket of his suit jacket.

"Mrs. Ellington. How can I help?"

"Agent Hughes." June hadn't exchanged more than a dozen words with the man before now, but he had overseen the division as long as Neal had been here, and she'd heard Peter Burke refer to him in respectful terms. June gave him a tentative smile. "I was hoping you could tell me if there's any news about Neal."

"Your lodger," said Hughes, eyebrows quirking.

"Neal is also my friend." June let her voice turn tremulous. "The house is terribly empty without him. You know, he's like a son to me. If only—"

Hughes interrupted her with an amused snort. "I'm sure."

June straightened her posture, torn between resentment and respect that he'd seen through her so quickly. The suits on Neal's commutation board had bought her act, hook, line and dabbed handkerchief; by contrast, this man before her seemed thoroughly unmoved. 

June allowed herself to be ushered up the stairs to his office, where she took a seat and folded her hands in her lap. "Agent Hughes—"

"Reese," said Hughes. He sat down and cleared aside some files so he could regard her shrewdly across the blank expanse of his desk.

"Reese," conceded June, assuming a businesslike tone. "Has there been any progress on bringing Neal home?"

"Caffrey's fate is still up in the air," said Hughes, just as bluntly. "This whole situation with DC, I have to admit, I don't like the look of it. But my best people are working hard to resolve the matter."

"If there's anything at all I can do to help—" June leaned forward.

Hughes frowned. "This is an internal matter for the Bureau, Mrs. Ellington. I don't see how—"

"I have connections," said June. She permitted herself a slight haughtiness. "I serve on the Boards of Trustees for several high profile charities, with rather a lot of prominent people. If there are strings that could fruitfully be pulled—"

"I'll be sure to let you know." If Hughes was impressed, he gave no sign. "Burke is investigating the political environment. We'll know more in a few days."

It had already been a week, but the wheels of bureaucracy turned slowly. June knew that from experience. So she nodded and rose to her feet. "Thank you, Reese. I won't take up any more of your time. I'll see myself out."

"Mrs. Ellington." Hughes stood too. His expression held a distinct spark of interest now, and June suspected that were she to linger, a personal invitation would be proffered, but she wasn't at all convinced she wanted to follow Neal's lead and get cozy with the Man, however well a close association had been working for Neal until recently. Perhaps she was spending too much time with Mozzie, or perhaps it was her independent spirit. 

Neal was young and benefited from guidance; June considered herself well able to manage her own affairs. There was no comparison.

Still, she thought, as she saw herself out of the office, past the gaggle of young agents still hovering around Jones' desk, this brief visit had been invigorating—to be regarded so astutely, to have her little con tested with a keen eye. She grinned to herself as she pressed the down button for the elevator. Perhaps she'd return in a few days, if there was no further word on Neal's situation, and try to sneak something else past Reese Hughes, if only to prove to herself—and to him—that she could. 

 

END


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